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"The BPA Guide offers a simple methodology to elicit, document, and analyse the existing “as-is” business processes involved in international trade, as well as aid in developing recommendations for further improvement. It suggests a set of practical steps and activities, from setting the scope of the business process analysis project; planning its implementation; collecting relevant data; and presenting it in an easily understandable manner, to analysing the captured data in order to identify bottlenecks and developing recommendations for improvement.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including micro enterprises, have emerged as an engine of growth for most countries of Asia and the Pacific. Their contribution is well known particularly for increasing production, export and employment, and thus income generation. Above all, SMEs serve as a seed bed for enterprise development. Each country has evolved its own policy, institutional framework and support mechanism suiting its needs, stage of development, ethos, culture and understanding of SMEs role.

The Asia-Pacific Development Journal (APDJ) is published twice a year by the Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The primary objective of the APDJ is to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge, experience, ideas, information and data on all aspects of economic and social development issues and concerns facing the region and to stimulate policy debate and assist in the formulation of policy.

This paper approaches inclusive development in South and South-West Asia through the framework of structural transformation and productive capacities. It discusses the opportunities for these countries to build their productive capacities through product diversification and presents a list of potential new products and export markets that could be targeted by government and private sector for achieving higher long-term gains.

The ongoing euro zone debt crisis creates an undesirable scenario for the global economy as well as for the Asia-Pacific region given that the region has close economic linkages. The paper aims to provide quantitative estimates of the potential impact of the euro zone debt crisis on merchandise exports as well as on economic growth and poverty reduction efforts in the region. The results indicate that a one-percentage-point fall of output growth of the euro zone would result in a total export loss of $166 billion.

The Asia-Pacific region continues to face a deeply challenging external environment. The V-shaped recovery from the depths of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis in 2010 proved to be short-lived, as the world economy entered the second stage of the crisis in 2011, due to euro zone debt concerns and the continued uncertain outlook for the United States economy. The region will be affected by slackening demand for its exports and higher costs of capital, as well as by loose monetary policies and trade protection measures of some advanced economies.

The Asia-Pacific region’s rapid growth since the 1950s had been supported by a favourable external economic environment and opportunities arising from globalization. This, however, has changed dramatically in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. In the new global environment, sustaining the region’s growth and realizing the Asia-Pacific century critically depends on its ability to harness the potential of regional economic integration.

The Asia-Pacific region’s rapid growth since the 1950s had been supported by a favourable external economic environment and opportunities arising from globalization. This, however, has changed dramatically in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. In the new global environment, sustaining the region’s growth and realizing the Asia-Pacific century critically depends on its ability to harness the potential of regional economic integration.

A listing of ESCAP meeting papers and official documents produced by substantive divisions in the year 2011. Wherever possible, in the Document Symbol Index, the document symbols link directly to the Official Document System of the United Nations (ODS).

The UN Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation Mechanism Thematic Working Group (TWG) on International Migration including Human Trafficking, co-chaired by ESCAP and IOM, launched the 2012 Situation Report on International Migration in South and South-West Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 5 April 2012.